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The Top CRM 25 Influencers of 2007

I was thinking that I would file my 2008 forecast blog and that would be it for the year. It was based on the wishful thinking that nothing much happens this deep into December and the need to focus on digging out from three decent snow storms in the last week. I was wrong.

The folks over at InsideCRM have not turned out the lights for the year and instead have graced us over the last week with two lists, the Top 20 blogs in CRM in 2007 and The Top 25 Influencers in CRM in 2007. Fair disclosure — I was named to both lists but this isn’t exactly a blog to brag about my good fortune (though that’s nice too).

What interested me most was the influencers list because the editors, led by Chris Bucholtz (does he have a cousin who pitched a no-no for the Red Sox?) really dug down below the surface to identify some important people who might not usually get a great deal of attention for their efforts.

Of course Marc Benioff led the list and I thought that was well deserved recognition of his pioneering efforts on so many levels. BUT Ed Abbo came in second.Ed’s the former CTO at Siebel and chief of the technology side of all things CRM at Oracle.Ed kept a lot of balls in the air by keeping all the disparate CRM products in line. One small criticism, I would have included Anthony Lye, SVP of CRM in the list, maybe even at the cost of replacing Larry Ellison.

The analysts and third party influencers were clustered in the middle with people like Paul Greenberg headlining that section. I have called him the dean of our group and nothing would make me change my mind about that. Paul is all over CRM like a junkyard dog, like white on rice, like a cheap suit — you get the idea, Paul knows everyone and nothing happens in CRM without Paul’s knowledge.

Congrats also go to Sheryl Kingstone one of the longest serving analysts in our space and Brent Leary — CRM Essentials LLC Co-Founder and Partner. I can’t name everyone, it wouldn’t be right.To get the full scoop click here and you will be directed to InsideCRM.